Facebook asks users whether to allow men to ask children for 'sexual images'

Facebook admitted Monday that it made a mistake by asking its users whether it should allow pedophiles to ask children for sexual photos on its website.

The online platform made a poll to ask users how they would set a policy on a man asking for explicit photos of a 14-year-old girl on Facebook.

The answers to the question ranged from "this content should not be allowed on Facebook, and no one should be able to see it" to "this content should be allowed on Facebook, and I would not mind seeing it."

Facebook's vice president of product, Guy Rosen, said in a tweet that the question was an error and these kinds of actions would always be "completely unacceptable" on the online platform.

"We run surveys to understand how the community thinks about how we set policies. But this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB," he explained. "We regularly work with authorities if identified. It shouldn't have been part of this survey. That was a mistake."

In a statement given to the Guardian, Facebook said it has since stopped the poll and that this behavior already violates its policies.

"We have prohibited child grooming on Facebook since our earliest days; we have no intention of changing this and we regularly work with the police to ensure that anyone found acting in such a way is brought to justice," the Guardian quoted Facebook as saying.